I guess your Irish alcohol reference comes down to grain ale & honey mead ? Both dating from the stone age.Think ' uisce beatha ' and it's children came down from the Babylonians - Greeks - Romans ?Would have liked to have met my maternal grandfather John Mehan but he died when my mother was a baby.The luck of the Irish eh ?

Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake - WC Fields